Thomas Underwear May Cause Disrobing

Let me start by saying I am not going to discuss the toddler bed any further today. But I am accepting suggestions for getting him to nap in said bed. Today's strategy is to wear him out this morning.



In the midst of getting the kids ready for school I found a naked Henry running up to me saying "choo choo. Choo choo".

Somehow he managed to unzip and remove his pj sleeper. He was clutching some Thomas the Train underwear and apparently needed to wear them immediately. We aren't even close to potty training. How does he know about underpants?


So I put them on. Never mind he is also wearing a big cloth diaper, too.

But I wonder if I can use Thomas to help me with the bed deal.

And please pardon those awful pictures. I took them with my phone. I have this fancy phone from which I can blog and I need to do that more often! I have vowed to not stress about the quality of my photos for this blog. What is more important is that I post something, even if it is shadowed and grainy and the skin tone color is waaay off and the lighting is horrid. : )

Sent from my iPhone

Do toddler beds really work?

Sooooo. This has already been a tough week in the sentimental-holding-on-to-the-last-baby-stages sense. Henry is just a mere 20months young and he had to make a couple big transitions this week that I normally place on a baby who is closer to two years old. But I had no choice here.

First the highchair broke. It is actually a miracle it withstood three kids and three moves. We even took it camping! But i placed it on the curb yesterday for bulk trash pick up and it was stolen in just a couple of hours. Never even made it to the garbage truck. Which makes me feel better that possibly someone is getting some sort of usage from it. So highchair out. Booster seat in.

Then it was the crib. This one has been looming for several weeks. Even though we have three kids, we have only one "climber"...#3. Nick never tried to climb out of his crib and we never gave Stella the chance. She threw her leg up on the rail but we put an end to that with a new twin bed. Both were in twin beds at 24mo (Stella at 23mo). But here we are with Henry at 20mo able to Houdini himself out of the crib in just seconds. I realize that this behavior is more "normal" and you are saying to me "welcome to my world". But we were caught off guard and without a plan.

Last week I stumbled upon a toddler bed at a consignment sale and bought it in hopes that it would provide a safer sleeping option and buy us some time until we are ready to buy more beds and rearrange furniture. I was thinking $45 = quick fix. I was also exhausted after two weeks or more of nobody sleeping in any bed! See how sleep deprivation can cloud your judgement?

But he hates the bed.
"do you want to sleep in your new bed?"
"no."

So we tried the toddler bed a few times. He fell asleep on the carpet after crying himself to sleep. I even put him in the bed before he woke up to trick him that he slept there (and that his mommy is not a heartless b* who locks her kids in their rooms ignoring their desperate cries and pounds on the door for rescue). No luck.

I gave up. Back to the crib. But now I had to rock him to sleep. And when he woke up in the middle of the night and climbed on the rail I would just sprint across the house to save him from falling. Every night. Every nap.

Yesterday after spending an hour putting him to bed only to nap for 45 min. I took extreme measures. In a huff I disassembled the crib. The crib just can't stay if he is climbing out. Then I reassembled the toddler bed (that shawn just took apart on Sunday). Still he wouldn't even climb up on the little bed. Totally despised it. I am desperate at this point.

Last night in this desperation I moved the little bed between nick and stella's beds in their room. Seemed like a good idea. He loves to mimic them...right?

And you know what...He actually climbed into it! Climbed on his little pillow. Snuggled in quietly between his big bro and sis. Just like the big kids. But when it came to bedtime the big kids were too giddy and my plan was sabotaged. I was overthrown and gave up.

Enter daddy.

I was told that I have been the common denominator in the bedtime defiance. Maybe so. Because Shawn took him and his bed back to his room. Sat next to him. And eventually walked out leaving a snoring baby behind.

Seriously?!

I think it was a fluke. As I know no one who has successfully used a toddler bed.

Stinker!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

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Spring Break in an RV Part 3

Finally! A night spent in our rented RV. Which, by the way, got many compliments our stay. "Nice rig!" "This is a nice RV." "You got yourselves a nice one there."

Then we'd clarify, that this was our first time out and it was not ours, but a rental.

"Oh I thought you'd gone all in on your first one!"

Roman Nose State Park, OK

The weather had climbed well out of the 20s and into the 70s by our last day. I stepped outside and cooked our breakfast that morning on my Cuisinart Griddler/Panini Press. A fancy-shmancy appliance I got for Christmas. Not a camping item either. It was from my kitchen at home. But that is a camping breakfast! Hot pancakes and even bacon. That's what you smell in a campground in the morning- meat cooking outside. This was pretty special, too, considering we normally have pancakes for dinner. (I can't get up early and cook breakfast before the kids are up. They wake up too darn early and I am always tired.)

They devoured the food. All the food actually. For three days of camping, I packed a cantelope, a watermelon, a box of strawberries and a bunch of bananas. All of it- gone by Thursday morning.

We needed energy for this:

Taking walks.

More hiking trails.

Playing putt-putt.

S's first game of golf.

H's first golf game, too. But he mostly carried a ball around. Until he saw this hole.

Shawn, so serious about a hole with a giant mouse in the middle of it.

Lots of lounging, too.

OH, you have to see this! The kids sat in the bunks and watched the DVD players (that were in the bunks). This worked out great when I was making dinner. They needed the rest by that time of day. I needed them to not fight and be in the way.

H and S were small enough they could sit up in the bed.

And even cuter...this is what they look like from outside the RV.

I forgot to mention, we picked up the RV on a Monday and had to return it by 11am on Thursday. We pulled in around 10:30 or so. Total Chinese firedrill to unpack the thing. Then I followed Shawn over to return it. He said it was 11:06 when he pulled in.

...and THAT is how much we loved the RV trip!

--Kate

Spring Break in an RV Part 2

view from our campsite

So after a terrible night of sleeping- me and 3 kids in a king bed and Shawn on the floor in a sleeping bag (only room left!) and missing out on our first night of camping. We got the propane, checked out of the hotel, and went back to camping! The park attendant had just come by to check on us before we checked out, too. Very nice people. Everyone. Very nice.

We felt like pros pulling into the site this time. Pulled up far enough to reach the water hook up. Only had to level it once. Slides out. Boom. Done. Now back to vacation.

Not wasting any time, we hit a nearby trail.

Our iPhones read NO SERVICE the whole trip, except for the brief lapses when an occasional text message chimed in. Shawn and I were surprised how was nice to be unplugged from the phone. Funny though, I would still pick it up, slide it on, and try to check weather or something. Duh. No service means no service for apps, too.

After hiking, we put H down for a nap inside and we all stayed outside. That's when Shawn broke the strap to the awning, so we all got sunburned. Well just pink. And in his defense, the pins that should have held the awning up weren't working anyway. But he did snap the strap while putting the awning away. Bye bye damage deposit.

We let N ride his bike by.him.self. around the campground. This was HUGE. We're talking, like big boy privileges here. OK, the campground was small. We could see him the whole time. But to him, I bet he felt like he was big stuff.

The fire ban was lifted just days before, so we just had to make smores. So I bought these humungous marshmallows, Campfire Giant Roasters, to be exact. So big that one of them makes a smore that requires a full size chocolate bar! Didn't see that part on the bag. The kids had fun roasting and burning and taking two bites and throwing the rest away. But offering to cook more. Isn't is the cooking that is more fun than the eating, anyway?

Then we stayed out after dark. N and S say they are "like big kids" when they are outside at night. It was awesome to have no schedule. No bedtime. No wake time.

Good night little RV, good night!

Last part tomorrow!

--Kate

Spring Break in an RV

Soooo, in case you didn't know, we rented an RV for Spring Break! YeeHaw! Seriously. We loved it! We have been talking about buying a motorhome (the RV that is driveable) for about 7 or 8 months now. We think we would really enjoy RV-ing, but there was no way to know for sure until we tried it out. But I mean, can you imagine, actually driving this thing!?

See how Shawn did...

And yes, it does go faster than 3mph. Shawn was just being v-e-r-y careful in the neighborhood (which I appreciated).

Shawn stepping out of the Winny...anxious campers climbing in.

What we rented: a Winnebago Vista, 2009. It is the 32K model= 32ft long with bunkbeds in the floorplan. If you need to know anything about this model just ask...I have down exhaustive research on many different motorhomes.

We packed everything up a day or so beforehand. I tried to organize our stuff in big bins, by "room" or "need". We packed linens. Kitchen items. Food. You name it, we had it. Oh, except underwear or socks for N. Oopsy. You know, he didn't even mind.

We chose to stay at Roman Nose State Park in Watonga, OK. It was about 80mi away so the trip fit nicely into the prepaid miles on the rental. The campsites at RNSP are first come, first serve- so we hustled to get packed and on the road as fast as we could. Which really isn't that fast, actually. Just fast enough though to snag the very last Full RV hook-up. Which means, we had electric, water, and sewer right at our site. (Yes, we were excited to be able to dump our holding tanks at our site. That is a plus when RV-ing, people.)

What is not a plus, though, is when your propane gauge reads full, but is really broken because you don't have enough propane to finish cooking dinner. And therefore have run out of hot water and heat for the night. Oh, and it was going to be in the 20s that night! But it was alright, the campground attendant told me exactly where to buy propane- in the morning! Cuz at 6:00pm this town shuts down. But he was very kind to put an Occupied sign on our site (remember it was the last one?). So ok. First crisis in the RV. We were lucky that we had already met a couple other campers because they helped diagnose the problem and helped block our site until we returned in the a.m. They also lent me a camping stove to finish dinner. And the raw chicken strips in the oven finished cooking by leaving the oven door shut. No cell phone service out there either, so Shawn had to walk to the lodge and make a reservation for us. So, after dinner, we packed up, pulled in our slides, unhooked, and headed to the park lodge-which was very, very nice. Modern. Eco-friendly. Newly remodeled. Oh the irony of us parking a 32ft RV in the parking lot of the lodge. Ahahahahaha!

Here's a few picture I took on my phone when we were on the road. This is why we would love to own one of these.

The big kids sat at this table for the whole trip- eating, playing My Little Ponies and Star Wars, and even napping. I know!

And here's the captain that made sure we didn't run into any moving vehicles or various stationary objects.

More tomorrow....

--Kate

The Real B-day Celebration!

In case you were wondering, we have made good on Stella's 4th birthday celebration! She wanted a Strawberry Shortcake party. And, well, although it wasn't a real party, it was still a party with Mom, Dad, and Brothers. She didn't seem to mind. There was cake!

And yes, I made the cake. And I am not a cake decorator. The cake was good. The homemade buttercream frosting was oh so good. Then I messed up a couple things. I tinted some can frosting pink to be the frosting between the two cake layers. Yuck. It probably would have tasted just fine by itself, but matched up with homemade buttercream, it tasted like plastic-coated cardboard. Ok, maybe I am being a bit dramatic. But it was a cake-fail. The other big cake-fail was adding all of the sugar sprinkles around the sides. Not to mention, I ran out of the pink sugar and had to patch up with purple, making the cake appear bruised. The sugar was crunchy and detracted from the buttercream.

But, does this look like a face of disappointment?

Happy 4th Birthday, Stella Bella!

--Kate

We had to postpone Stella's Birthday

We were all looking forward to somebody's 4th birthday...and then...vomit got in the way. Well, vomit, and diarrhea, and sickness. And lots of it. In fact, all three kids were sick. At.the.same.time! I often wondered what would happen if all three were throwing up at the same time. Something that would put my mom skills to the test. And would I pass? Would there be vomit all over my house? How does one "manage" all the outflows and limp bodies, I would wonder.

Well, I have lived it. I survived. And our house stunk for a few days. Honestly, it might still stink and I just don't know because I am used to it. Floors were fine, but beds were made and washed and remade and washed many, many times. (To our future home buyers: no one threw up on our carpets, promise!) I won't get into the details, because they were really gross. All I can say is poor Stella. She got it the worst.

But, I will say that having all three sick in that way, at once is much better (dare I say "easier" too) than stringing it over weeks. There was no worry of keeping sick ones away from well ones. Or making food for one while denying others because they can't even hold down water. It was something that I dreaded, but now I have survived it. And, yes, I realize I am not the only one with sick kids..blah, blah, blah... But when you are not a supermom, you never know if these events are going to break you.

So having shared that, you can understand why Stella's birthday was postponed and where I have been all week. Despite her feeling so bad, she insisted on opening presents that night. I don't know why- she didn't really enjoy it.

Woo hoo! Presents Time!

Grrreeeaaat...a Sttraaaawberrrry Shoooorrtcaaaake dooollll...juuuussst whhhaat Iiiii wwaaantted...thhaannkssss.

Yes, she is really making that face of pure disgust after opening a box full of headbands and hairclips. (that sick)

Isn't this the saddest face you have ever seen. She looks like a hostage.

Nick couldn't keep up.

A quick wardrobe change after an "accident" in her pants (yes, that sick).

This is what I got when I asked her to give me a smile. I was sorry I put her through the trouble!


And finally...


Happy 4th birthday, my dear, Stella!
We'll do this right when everyone is better.
--Kate